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Video Streaming: HLS, DASH & Adaptive Bitrate

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Segmented streaming: HTTP as a video delivery protocol

Modern video streaming replaced RTMP (a stateful TCP streaming protocol) with HTTP-based adaptive streaming. The video is pre-encoded into multiple bitrate renditions and sliced into short segments (2–10 seconds each) stored on a CDN. The player fetches segments over plain HTTPS — taking advantage of CDN caching, HTTP/2 multiplexing, and standard web infrastructure.

HLS (Apple, RFC 8216) and MPEG-DASH (ISO standard) are the two dominant formats, now converging on CMAF (Common Media Application Format) with fMP4 containers so the same segments serve both.

Packets in motion — click to inspect:

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